


when we're old

by animad



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Plantboy Phil Lester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 08:18:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17097155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animad/pseuds/animad
Summary: a christmas delivery, a visit to the Lesters', and a walk on the beach





	when we're old

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Reysamess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reysamess/gifts).



> based on the prompt from @reysamess:
> 
> They go to the Lester house and end up having a great time with Phil’s family, but they want alone time too, but can’t seem to find any. Wacky adventures ensue.
> 
> I took a few creative liberties with this fic, I really hope you like it and if you have a tumblr please get in touch after reveal day, I'd love to know who you are!
> 
> also thanks to my wonderful beta [@heartfeltfangirl](https://heartfeltfangirl.tumblr.com) for all your help in making this fic the best it can be <3

“Phil, you liar! That’s _so_ not what happened!” Dan squawks from the edge of the sofa he has shuffled himself to in his enthusiastic retelling of the past few days’ events to the Lester's.

Phil sits, pushed up to the back of the sofa in his parents’ home on the Isle of Man, legs folded up in front of him and a now cold mug of coffee resting on the arm of the sofa loosely clasped in his hand.

He loves watching Dan tell stories, or more retell stories, despite the fact Phil would still feign annoyance at being interrupted every five words because he “wasn’t telling it right!” He loves the way Dan flails his arms about in a dramatic reenactment and describes every little thing in vivid detail, even his tendencies towards exaggeration.

Phil sits and watches, listening to him talk, a smile on his face as stories he’d been there for are painted in front of him. Despite how he’d actually been feeling at the time, it always seemed funnier when Dan told it. And everyone always laughed; that was his favourite part.

Except right now.

“It’s not my fault rock beats scissors!”

Phil grins back at Dan, tongue between his teeth. He reaches out and touches a fingertip to the point of Dan’s shoulder, a small daisy grows from the top of Dan’s head, rising an inch above the fluffiness of his curls. Then a pillow is swinging towards Phil’s face and his hands are flying up in a valiant attempt to protect himself a second too late and the daisy is gone.

“Hey!”

“Anyway,” Dan says, stretching the word and turning back to his audience. “It was still me who ended up having to be social.”

\--

They stood around the upstairs intercom, waiting for the buzz, and had been since Phil had received the text message that their christmas tree was 10 minutes away.

“Okay,” Phil said in an unnecessary stage whisper. “If you get the door, I’ll help decorate the tree.”

“Why are you whispering, they're not even here yet?” Dan said, in a normal voice. “How about you get the door and we decorate together because it’s tradition.”

_Buzz_

They both turned towards the intercom as if surprised it made any noise at all. Phil suddenly lifted his fist up in between them.

Dan sighed. “Ugh, fine quickly” and lifted his fist to join Phil’s. They have this routine down to a T by now, just like so many other things in their lives. On the final round Dan’s rock beats out Phil’s scissors.

The intercom buzzed again, longer this time, and Dan hit the speaker button.

“Hello?”

“Christmas tree delivery for Mr Lester,” the voice replied. Phil’s name since it was his name on the account, despite it being Dan who had sat scrolling the website for hours before ending up choosing the first one Phil had shown him.

“Mr Lester will be down in a minute.” Dan spoke towards the microphone, triumphantly.

“But I’m wearing pyjamas.” Phil whined.

“Should’ve thought about that shouldn’t you,” Dan teased, patting Phil on the bum as he walked past towards the stairs.

This is another thing they have a routine for; Phil answered the door and let the delivery man inside but once he’d passed the threshold Dan did most of the talking, directing him up the stairs and to the corner of the living room where they wanted to set up the tree. Phil hovered behind Dan, social meerkat mode fully activated at having a stranger intrude in their home.

“Would you like any help?” Dan asked, with absolutely no intention of helping, not when a very handsome, perfectly capable young man was going to do it for them. Especially when that same man was wearing a kilt that rose unexpectedly high up his thighs when he bent over to set down the tree. A gimmick of the company, one that _coincidentally_ happened to do _really great_ trees.

Dan and Phil quickly and not very covertly, averted their eyes.

“Are we supposed to mention it?” Phil whispered into Dan’s shoulder. “Compliment it or something?” Dan feigned shock and horror before Phil lightly punched him on the arm, “you know what I mean, don’t be so dirty.”

“I don’t know.” Dan replied, honestly, raising his should slightly into Phil’s chin.

“I think that should do it, lads.” The delivery man said, startling them, as he got up and turned back to face them. “Is that alright for ya’s?”

Dan recovered first. “Yeah, it’s great. Thank you.” Then just as Phil was about to open his mouth to send him on his way Dan continued. “It’s a very fine tree you’ve brought us,” and smiled one of his most dimple-y smiles.

Dan suddenly felt Phil’s elbow digging in his arm. He ignored it.

“Aye, thanks. Not so bad yourself.” The delivery man replied, a dazzling smile of his own, and nodded towards one of the… _less_ fortunate casualties of a 5 month world tour. Dan could see Phil’s cheeks turn a little pinker and look down as they both glanced at the pile of browning leaves in the corner, something Dan knew Phil was particularly ashamed of given his unique abilities.

Dan laughed nervously, “Yeah, we’ve been away for a bit.” An awkward pause. Phil’s elbow was then most definitely digging into Dan’s side.

Delivery Man bypassed the usually follow up questions to such an answer. “Well, if you have any problems just give us a ring and we’ll get someone out. For that one, I mean,” he said, gesturing a thumb over his shoulder. “Don’t think the ts and cs cover anything else.”

Phil had already left Dan to suffer and Dan could hear him reaching the bottom of the stairs and unlatching the door. Another awkward laugh from Dan. “Yeah, will do.” And because he just has to make a bad situation worse adds, “Nice kilt by the way.”

“Aye, thanks,” Delivery Man replied, seemingly impervious to the awkwardness Dan was experiencing. “Gets a bit breezy if ya know what I mean.”

\--

“I didn’t blush,” Dan says, voice full of indignation.

Dan takes great pride in his flirting abilities, yet gets flustered at any and all reciprocation.

“You definitely blushed.” Phil replies.

“How would you even know? You’d already scarpered.”

“I just know you, Danny, and you definitely blushed.” Phil says, bopping Dan on the nose as he gets up to finally take his mug to the kitchen.

“Well, I’m sure he was a lovely man,” Kath says, leaning over to pat Dan on the knee. “You know how Phil gets about having strangers in the home. He was the same when he was a kid, always sat up at the top of the stairs watching whenever we had a maintenance person over. He’d never settle until they were gone, even if it took the idea day.”

“I wasn’t that bad.” Phil says, walking back in the room while pulling on his festive knitted jumper Kath had left on their bed when they’d arrived. Dan's already wearing his.

“You sure, babe?” Dan teases. “Remember when we had the plumber over in the old place?”

“You’d left me!” Phil finally gets the jumper on and tugs it down before collapsing back onto the sofa, one leg tucked under him and the other stretched out behind Dan. He pulls the sleeves down over his hands and waggles the ends against Dan’s face. “I wasn’t just gonna leave him alone so he could snoop about was I?”

\--

Phil found Dan still stood in the same spot once he’d made it back up the stairs from letting the delivery man out, except now Dan had his arms folded across his chest and his head was tilted to the side.

“It’s wonky.” Dan said, matter of fact.

“Your mum’s wonky.”

“By mum’s definitely wonky, but I mean the tree. He didn’t put it straight.”

Phil stopped from where he’d been bending down to pick up the box of decorations they’d pulled out from the back of a cupboard earlier that day.

“Shut up.” Dan said.

“Didn’t say anything.”

“Just look,” Dan gestured emphatically towards the tree.

Phil sighed and moved to stand beside Dan, copying his posture.

After a moments deliberation he said, “well I guess it’s meant to be then isn’t it” and gave Dan a tooth-and-tongue smile before going back to pick up the box and drop it at their feet. He picked up a bauble.

“Wait!” Dan said suddenly, swinging his arms out to the sides so one hits Phil in the stomach, stopping him from moving.

“What?” Phil said, looking at Dan with confused bemusement.

“We need music!” Dan’s very much an all or nothing kind of guy.

Phil stood, swinging the bauble around his finger, and waited while Dan picked up his phone and scrolled through the various christmas spotify playlists. He frowned slightly in concentration. When he goes in he goes all in, Phil had learnt that very quickly, and that meant the perfect playlist to accompany such an important event that you have to wait an entire 365 days to repeat so you need to make it perfect, _Phil_.

Phil had snuck three baubles on the tree by the time Dan seemed satisfied with his choice and had connected his phone to the speakers.

They decided to go for a gold and silver theme, because they’re classy fucks, Dan said as he sipped ribena from a wine glass. They’ve been severely lacking in the household chores since all the tour stuff had finished up. Phil snorted and switched the lights to rave mode.

 

“Phil! Hurry up the uber’s here!” Dan shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

“When did we get this?” Phil asked, leaning over the banister and dangling a white squirrel ornament from his finger.

“What?” Dan said, exasperated, and turned to look up at him. “I don’t remember, a few years ago probably. The uber’s here we need to go, have you got everything?”

“Yeah,” Phil replied, still distracted by the fluffy stuff animal in his hands. He walked back over to the tree and hung the squirrel back up. He took a picture of it hanging from the branch so he could agonise over its origins with proof of its existence.

He was still thinking about it by the time they were walking out the door.

And in the car on their way to the airport.

He got his phone out again and shoved it under Dan’s nose. “I swear I’ve never seen it before in my life.”

Dan rolled his eyes but humoured him, taking the phone from Phil’s hand and looked at the image properly.

“Phil, we’ve had this for ever.”

And on the plane.

“I’d remember that tail.” Phil murmured.

“I’m beginning to get worried, Phil.” Dan said, giving him a look that reminded him of the way his mother would look at him when he’d say something particularly strange as a kid.

“I’m not crazy,” Phil insisted, in a low voice because he was surrounded by strangers and sane people don’t need to reason to be believed not to be crazy. “I don’t remember buying it and you said you don’t remember buying it, so where did it come from!”

“I don’t remember buying a lot of things, Phil, yet I still have them.” Dan had his knee up against the seat in front of him, his headphones on and a video playing on his phone. Phil could tell Dan wasn't particularly interested, but he just couldn’t let it go. It’s like the missing final piece in a 1000 piece puzzle; it’s existing on their tree right this moment, and Dan didn’t seem to have a problem with it so it can’t be that much of a mystery. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe he was going crazy. “Maybe a friend got it for us.” A solid minute later. Maybe it was getting to Dan too.

\--

It’s evening now, and they’ve had dinner. Phil’s next to Dan on the sofa, his feet tucked under Dan’s thigh while Dan plays his new obsession of a video game on his laptop. A message pops on at the top of Phil’s phone screen. He inhales a sharp breath then leans over to Dan and punches him repeatedly on the shoulder in the way he does when he’s excited.

“Ow-w.” Dan deadpans, but keeps his eyes on his screen.

“Dan!” Phil says, still hitting Dan on the shoulder.

“What?” Dan says, finally turning towards Phil.

“It’s Bry! She did it! She hung it on the tree when they were over!” Phil moves closer so he can show Dan his phone screen.

Dan stares blankly at the screen for a few seconds, reading the message. “Well, I’m glad that mysteries solved. You can stop obsessing over the damn squirrel now, you spoon.”

Phil looks at him with a triumphant grin on his face. A smile creeps on Dan’s lips and he reaches an arm around Phil’s neck and pulls him closer. Phil falls against Dan, so his head is resting against Dan’s chest and looks up at him.

“Told you I wasn’t crazy.”

“Sure,” Dan says pressing a kiss to the top of Phil’s head. “You keep telling yourself that.”

 

Phil’s laid out on the sofa in the living room, feet hanging over the opposite arm, and he’s definitely not sulking. He’s not. His mum kicked him out the kitchen for mixing up the ingredients wrong. They’re all just going in the same bowl at the end of the day so he doesn’t see why the order should matter but apparently it does and he’s not going to argue with his mum if it means he still gets to eat the finished product. His dad and brother had gone out earlier in the morning to somewhere Phil hadn’t been listen hard enough to remember. He reckons he could go join Dan upstairs but he’s probably sleeping and anyway Phil kind just wants to be alone for a bit in his not-sulk.

He watches the vines weave themselves between his fingers. It’s something he’s done since he was a child, some kind of comforting ritual. It was the first thing he learned how to control. At first, it would take a lot of concentration then as he got older it became something that needed no thought at all, something he did even when he was just bored. The familiarity of the vines brushing against his skin and the hypnotic effect of watching them weave back and forth had a calming affect on him.

He can hear various noises throughout the house; his Mum and Cornelia talking in the kitchen, there’s a bang from a room or two over. Phil pauses to see how worried he should be when he hears his Dad cursing inanimate objects, so they must be back.

He hears footsteps coming down the stairs and isn’t surprised when Dan is kneeling down beside him, resting his chin on his arms folded on the sofa cushion beside Phil’s head. Phil turns around to face him. He runs his fingers through Dan’s hair then leaves his hand resting on top of Dan’s head and watches the vines encircle Dan’s head once like a reeth before he makes them disappear. He moves his hand to stroke down Dan’s cheek, resting there to pull Dan’s face towards slightly to press their lips together. Dan hums into the kiss.

“Wanna go for a walk?” He murmurs when Phil’s pulled away.

“But it’s cold.” Phil whines, this time Dan moves forward on his own for a kiss.

“Please?” Dan says. Phil takes in Dan’s big brown eyes for a moment. From this close he can make out the beautifully intricate patterns of Dan’s irises; the darker ring around the edges and the almost golden starburst pattern throughout the middle. He thinks there’s something pleading about them right now.

Phil sighs. “Okay. Just let me tell mum we’re going and get my shoes on.”

Dan gives him another quick kiss before standing up and turning around. Phil swings his legs onto the floor and follows behind, stopping at the kitchen on the way to the door.

Kath is stood at the counter chopping potatoes for christmas dinner later. It’s not _the_ christmas dinner, but it’s the last day with all of them here; both Dan and Cornelia will be leaving tomorrow to spend christmas day with their own families. So this is as much christmas dinner as the one on the actual day will be. Maybe even better.

“Me and Dan are going for a walk.” Phil tells her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kisses the side of her head.

“Okay, sweetheart, be back in time for dinner won't you. And make sure you wear your gloves,” she calls after him.

Wrapped up in hats, scarves, gloves, and an extra pair of socks each and twenty minutes later they’re walking down their favourite stretch of beach, hands in their coat pockets and walking close enough for their elbows to be bumping together every other step. It’s mid afternoon, but the beach is empty.

They did pass one dog walker earlier, who was throwing a ball for his dog who was gallivanting up and down the beach as if it wasn’t the middle of winter and below freezing. They’d wished each other merry christmas as they’d passed.

They walk along in silence. Phil looks across at Dan, with his fluffy hat that hangs down over his ears. He’s got his eyes fixed down on the sand, his brows ever so slightly tugged down in the middle. Phil links his arm around Dan’s bent elbow and puts his hand back in his pocket. Dan looks up at him, almost startled like he forgot Phil was even there for a second and gives him a small smile, squeezing around Phil’s arm, pulling him closer. His eyes fall back to the ground.

The biting wind whips passed them from the ocean, the large expanse for water that’s just… right there. Phil’s not the biggest fan of the ocean but he watches the angry grey-blue of the water rise and fall in sharp waves that threaten to reach them and take him into its depths, yet it never does. It always gives up and falls into white frothy-ness a matter of metres away. He squeezes back against Dan’s arm again and feels safe, one of his greatest fears right there, but not here.

They haven’t talked about where they are going but when their little cove comes into view they’re both already heading for it.

It’s more just a dip in the short rock face than a cove, a place they just happened to stop at the very first time and have ever since. The rock curves in on itself a little then down onto the ground, making a perfect little perch off the sand. The walls curve around them giving the illusion of privacy.

When they reach it Phil unloops his arm and presses his hand flat against the rock, moss starts to grow from under his touch, stopping just a bit bigger than his hand and in the shape of a heart. He looks across at Dan, whose chin is tucked in behind the zip of his coat but Phil can tell he’s smiling just from the raised points of his cheeks under his eyes. Phil takes his hand away and they both sit down on the rocky outcrop.

Dan leans in further to rest his head on Phil’s shoulder. Phil pushes back slightly and waits.

“I want to move here when we’re old.” Dan finally speaks quietly into their little bubble.

They’ve talked about many variations of their future. Sometimes there’s kids, sometimes not. Most of the time there’s a dog involved. In some they’re in a penthouse in London, high in the sky surrounded by the top of the city and the familiarity of their past. Sometimes they're in a completely different country; living the high life in LA, or halfway around the world in Australia. In some they’re in a little scenic town in Sweden.

But Isle of Man has made it’s fair share of appearances.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

It’s not the first time either of them have made those kinds of declarations, and Phil’s sure it won’t be the last. But right now it feels like the most real of all their potential futures.

“I’d like that too.”

**Author's Note:**

> have a great end of the year x
> 
>  
> 
> [reblog on tumblr!](http://yourfriendlyblogstalker.tumblr.com/post/181463077955/when-were-old)


End file.
